DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp plans to launch its
electric car, the Chevrolet Volt, by the end of 2010 despite
skepticism at GM about that target, its chief of global product
development told Reuters on Tuesday.

As the race to bring a mass-market, rechargeable electric
vehicle to the market heats up, GM's Bob Lutz said employees
working on the Volt "are becoming increasingly nervous."

"There is a lot of skepticism within the company about the
timeline," Lutz said at the Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit.
"People are biting their nails, but those of us in a leadership
position have said it has to be done."

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Lutz said the Volt plug-in hybrid -- which GM plans to
road-test early next year and produce by late 2010 -- is
crucial to GM's efforts to snag the environmental technology
crown from Japanese rival Toyota Motor Corp.

"When people think of Toyota, their iconic brand is the
Prius," Lutz said, referring to Toyota's popular hybrid car.

GM is the only automaker to have provided a timeline on
production even though other companies, such as Ford Motor Co
and Toyota, are working on similar technology.

"We have to reestablish GM's leadership and the Volt is,
frankly, an effort to leapfrog anything that is done by any
other competitor," Lutz said.

Unlike earlier gasoline-electric hybrids, which run on a
system that twins battery power and a combustion engine,
plug-ins are designed for short trips powered entirely by an
electric motor and a battery charged through a socket at home.

Lutz said GM regrets its decision not to build a hybrid car
when Toyota launched its game-changing Prius in 1997.

"We kind of lost the first couple of laps of the green car
race," Lutz said, saying they couldn't go to GM's board "for a
multihundred-million program that was going to lose money."

With the Prius, Toyota controls about 80 percent of the
market for hybrids in the United States.

"We have since realized that letting Toyota gain that
mantle of green respectability and technology leadership has
really cost us dearly in the marketplace," Lutz said.

40 MILES ON BATTERY

GM is designing the Volt to run 40 miles on battery power
alone, with an on-board gasoline-powered engine as a backup.

The Volt would be outfitted with new lithium-ion battery
packs, which hold a charge longer than the nickel metal hydride
batteries now used widely in automobiles.

Automakers say lithium-ion technology remains the biggest
challenge in producing a plug-in as they try to lower the cost
of the batteries and boost their power and storage capacity.

Also, the current generation of lithium-ion batteries, used
in devices like laptop computers, have a tendency to overheat.

Toyota executives have said they do not expect lithium-ion
batteries to be ready for use in the company's market-leading
Prius hybrid by GM's 2010 timetable.

GM is testing lithium-ion battery technology developed by
its two suppliers -- A123 Systems and Compact Power Inc, a
subsidiary of South Korea's LG Chem. But Lutz said GM needs to
invest more in battery development internally.

GM already has a patent attorney assigned to the Volt to
make sure the company keeps hold of rights to the technology.

"I'm convinced we can do the Volt and put it on the road,
but if we want a commanding and permanent lead on this type of
vehicle ... we have to control the intellectual property," Lutz
said. "Otherwise it will propagate to other manufacturers too
quickly."